11.10 GEOGRAPHIC INSIGHTS

Oceania: Review and Self-Test

1. Environment: Oceania faces a host of environmental problems and public awareness of environmental issues is keen. Global climate change, primarily warming, has brought rising sea levels and increasingly variable rainfall. Other major threats to the region’s unique ecology have come from the introduction of many nonnative species and the expansion of herding, agriculture, fishing, and human settlements.

2. Globalization and Development: Globalization, coupled with Oceania’s stronger focus on neighboring Asia (rather than on its long-time connections with Europe), has transformed patterns of trade and economic development across Oceania. The transformation is being driven largely by Asia’s growing affluence, its enormous demand for resources, and its similarly massive production of manufactured goods.

3. Power and Politics: In recent decades, stark divisions have emerged in Oceania over definitions of democracy—the system of government that dominates in New Zealand and Australia—versus the Pacific Way, a political and cultural philosophy based in the traditional cultures of the Pacific islands.

4. Urbanization: Oceania is only lightly populated but it is highly urbanized. The shift from agricultural and resource-based economies toward service economies is a major reason for the urbanization of the wealthiest parts of Oceania (Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii, Guam), where 80 to 100 percent of the population lives in cities. These trends are weakest in Papua New Guinea and many smaller Pacific islands.

5. Population and Gender: In this largest but least populated world region, there are two main patterns relevant to population and gender. Australia, New Zealand, and Hawaii have older and more slowly growing populations, and relatively more opportunities for women. The Pacific islands and Papua New Guinea have much more rural, younger, and rapidly growing populations, with fewer opportunities for women.